The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for processing a product in a tobacco-processing machine operating according to a given machine cycle. Particularly, the product is processed in dependence on information about the product and associated with the product.
German patent document DE 19 00 701 B2, co-owned by the assignee of the present application, discloses writing information about a manufactured product into a cell of a shift register. The information is advanced in the shift register in clock-synchronous relationship with the product to permit timed actuation of actuators arranged at a spacing from the corresponding sensors.
German patent document DE-OS No 21 13 841, owned by Industrial Nucleonics Corporation, discloses a method of tracking and classifying products. As disclosed therein, provided along a production path are a reference point, a plurality of measurement stations, an actuation station, and a counter. The counter is increased as the product passes a reference point. When a product moves past one of the measurement locations, a signal corresponding to the measurement result is formed and stored in a memory having a plurality of cells. The address of the memory cell corresponds to the difference of the current value of the counter and the spacing between the measurement location and the reference point. At the same time, the procedure provides for reading the memory cell whose address corresponds to the difference between the current counter condition and the spacing of the actuation station from the reference point, whereby the corresponding signal reproduces the information belonging to the product just moving past the actuation station. If the information states that the corresponding product is not faultless, the actuation station is activated and the product removed from the production installation.